Fig. 2.

Evidence of hepatic fibrosis in the HSOS mouse model induced by Gynura Rhizoma. a Hepatic level of hydroxyproline. b Hepatic protein level of α-SMA. c Percentage of collagen-positive cells in liver tissue. d IHC staining for desmin and α-SMA and Sirus red staining of collagen (400× magnification, bar is 50 μm). Six fields were randomly selected and observed for each sample. e Hepatic mRNA expression of fibrosis-related genes. Values are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 6–12). Statistics were analyzed by unpaired t-test. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 vs. control group